An Innocent Beauty
by Artemis Day
Summary: Amon finds himself conflicted over the Avatar in ways he really shouldn't be. Hints of Amorra.


**A/N: This is for 'Amorra-AOxymoronLove' on deviantART's 30 Themes Challenge. The theme is 'Innocence.'**

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Amon tries to ignore the fact that the Avatar is just a young girl. At 17 years old, she knows nothing of the world around her, not really. She's spent her youth sheltered from reality. She doesn't understand how the bending she's more than happy to show off is slowly destroying the world. How it makes benders feel superior to the common man, like they are above them. So many non-benders are oppressed each and every day, and the Avatar goes about with her cocky attitude and her Pro-Bending and her loose flames and rock and water like nothing is wrong.

He hates her for it.

He hates how revered she is.

She's just a foolish child and she's done nothing to earn the people's respect, much less his.

Not that there's anything she could do aside from swear off bending forever and join his cause to eradicate it from the world. Amon actually cracks a smile at the thought, but he doesn't quite laugh.

Though he knows right away how young the Avatar is, he's still baffled the first time they meet face to face. It had been her own doing, this encounter. Like a fool, she had publicly called him out and demanded a showdown, far sooner than he was ready for. Oh, the time would come, that was a guarantee, just not now.

But soon.

His men have the Avatar at their mercy. Her bending is blocked and her body is bound by countless ropes. Amon notes her muscled body, she's definitely a capable fighter even without her bending. Were it really just the two of them that night, she might have stood a chance. All she can do now is stare at him, piercing blue eyes searching for his, hidden behind the shadows of his mask. She'll never see them, not until the final seconds of her life might he allow her to see.

He stares back and thinks about this, about her inevitable death at his hands. He's imagined it countless times before with no regrets and no emotion. The Avatar is nothing but an impediment to his plans. Killing her was for the good of the world. Both herself and bending were obsolete. They needed to go.

Amon looks into her eyes and feels something inside him shift. His chest starts to hurt, and for a moment, he thinks he's stopped breathing. Her eyes are wide like a child's (_she is a child_), full of shock and awe and… fear.

Yes. There is fear in those eyes. Her perpetual fire is gone, if only for a moment. And Amon knows it's because she doesn't understand why someone who doesn't even know her could hate her so much. Bending yes, herself no.

Amon hates her. He tells himself that he hates her and has no trouble believing it.

That was before, this is now. Now he isn't sure what to think. Because he doesn't know this girl, or anything about her. He only knows what he's seen and heard of her. He knows she's powerful, he knows the rumors that she has issues with the spiritual aspect of bending, he knows she thinks very highly of herself and very lowly of him and his cause.

_She just doesn't understand._

She's just a child!

A child he is going to have to kill.

Amon's stomach turns and he almost has trouble keeping eye contact. He can't show any weakness, not to the Avatar or his men.

He finishes speaking to her and knocks her out. Her eyes snap shut and Amon can breathe easy again. He orders his soldiers to leave her. Her friends will come for her once she doesn't come home. For now, she'll be just fine.

Amon is the last to leave. He tells his Lieutenant that he wants to watch for anyone coming that might attack them, but he really just wants to see the Avatar one more time. When they're all gone, he approaches her. Her body is sprawled out beneath a patch of moonlight. Amon stays off to the side, in the shadows. He back is to him, dark brown hair falling into what he can see of the side of her face.

She looks peaceful.

He almost likes looking at her.

Amon forces himself not to linger, to turn around and walk to the exit where the Equalists await him. On the way back to their main Head Quarters, he tries not to think about her eyes anymore. The shade of blue was something he'd come to be accustomed to in his youth. There was something different about the Avatar's though. Something made them stick out in his mind more than anything else. Whatever it is, he find himself slowly becoming captivated, loathed as he is to admit it. He doesn't think they'll be leaving his mind for the rest of the night. So much for sleeping.

It occurs to him in the next few weeks that she's actually a very pretty girl. When she's older, she'll be beautiful. When that thought first came to him, Amon felt like he'd been slapped in the face. What on earth was he doing thinking about his sworn enemy like that?

He shakes his head like this will actually dislodge the filthy thought and reminds himself that she's just a child and not someone to think seriously on about anything, except the fact that he's going to kill her someday.

Amon feels unwell for a whole different reason now, and collapses on his bed with his head in his hands and sighs deeply.

Until this is over, he's going to be stuck in this endless tug of war that Avatar has unknowingly put him in. Back and forth he'll go between childish ignorance and striking beauty.

Amon thinks this is becoming a lose-lose situation.

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**A/N: I don't know if I'm ever going to have time to write a full Amorra chapter fic (though I do have an idea for one), but I love this pairing so much I had to write something for it. So I decided to take on one of the themes they set up.**

**Hopefully I haven't completely butchered Amon's character beyond recognition. Sincerest apologies if I have. ^^'**


End file.
